1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to ink jet printers and the like, and more particularly relates to the ink cartridges and the supply of ink for such printers.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Ink jet printers, such as those which use the Seiko-Epson Writing Engine, rely primarily on one or more replaceable ink cartridges, one cartridge for each color. The cartridges contain a limited quantity of ink and must be replaced frequently. Cartridge replacement results in printer down time and disrupts the printing operation. This disruption occurs each time just one color cartridge must be changed.
External bulk ink delivery systems are well known in the art for supplying a larger quantity of ink to the printers. However, such delivery systems are most commonly passive systems, using gravity feed, capillary feed, siphons or other mechanisms, instead of active electrical/mechanical devices, to transfer ink to the printing head.
Also, such conventional ink delivery systems have inherent limitations, as their use often results in ink starvation or flooding at the printing head. These phenomena occur because the level of the ink immediately adjacent to the printing head is insufficiently maintained either due to limitations of the feed system or the need to manually adjust and replenish the ink reserves.